Table of Contents
Introduction
Articles on thought leadership and blogs are crucial for the marketing and content strategy of any business in today’s times. You need to establish your company and yourself as an expert in the industry to be in sync with all the trends and engage with your clients. Whether you are running a hair salon, restaurant or construction firm, an engaging blog with useful information makes you more relevant to your target audience online. A professional proofreading service is essential for your blog to function.
Even if you are extremely qualified in your field, maintaining a blog for your business can be challenging. You must stay in sync with the latest interesting topics, follow trends, and make these work for the search engines. You also have to ensure your blog text has no spelling, typos, or grammatical errors. You must pick the right words, hit the right tone, and capture the reader’s attention to convey your message. So, if you are wondering why it is important to get a proofreader on board, this post will help answer your questions.
To convey your brand message, you need to hit the correct tone with the audience and pick the right words to do the same. We strongly believe that no business owner should be pressured to single-handedly check all the boxes. It is always better to hire a specialist, in this case – a professional proofreading service.
This post will help you understand how getting a professional proofreading service can benefit you:
– It will help you make high-quality and accurate linguistic choices
– It will help you achieve a flawless final product
– It will help your business and brand build credibility among your audience
1. A Good Proofreader is synonymous with better language
If you are thinking about why is it important to make good content and what constitutes it, then you should know that the content piece must be impeccable for your brand to stand out. In a blog, typos in your product description or non-localized expressions that are a part of the outreach piece will not make your brand look like an authoritative source. Following a few aspects you need to keep in mind for all your text content the professional proofreading service will polish for you:
Typos and minor errors
Even the most amazing writers can make a few mistakes. So, even if you think your blog post is flawless, you will be surprised to find a few minor errors or typos that even an AI editor can miss. Another reason why it is important to get a proofreader on board is because the longer you look at your written work, the more you will not see any inconsistencies in it. A professional proofreading service has a trained eye for such cases.
There are also various techniques, such as reading backwards, reading aloud, printing the document, and changing the font size, to check for these mistakes.
Grammar and punctuation
A professional proofreading service will look at the correct text. The proofreader will gauge your writing and see if it hits the specific rules to ensure it meets the required standards. There should be no redundancies, no spelling mistakes, proper punctuation, and all the sentences should make sense. This, too, is important to know when you ask why it is important to get a proofreader on board.
Style and consistency
Punctuation, grammar and the correct sentence structure are crucial for the readability of your text. However, if you hire a professional proofreading service, it will also help you work through issues in the text that do not align with the required style guide. It will also look at the consistency in formatting. Are there too many repetitions? Is the bullet point consistent? Is the text formal or conversational? Why is it important for the text to sit within the tone of the content strategy? The proofreader will ask these questions while reviewing your text and helping you present it better. A professional proofreading service will consider these and ensure that your text meets the highest quality standards.
Right word usage
Differentiating between words that can be confused is another skill that the proofreader is trained in. While a hair salon owner may know what fringes are and how to cut hair in layers, they may not understand why is it important to differentiate between its and its, their or there, accept or except, and other such words.
Ideally, such mistakes are fixed during the editing stage. However, if the writer decides to skip the editing process and pass the document directly to the professional proofreading service, such mistakes are often spotted and rectified. The proofreader is skilled in spotting and correcting mistakes. Hence, a professional proofreading service will always be useful in such instances.
Localization and spelling
We often forget that languages evolve to include accents, dialects and unique nuances. English is a language that is used across the world and is the official language in most countries. Yet, there is a difference in how it is spoken in different parts of the world.
Once you select who is on your target audience, you can focus on localizing your content based on them. For example, there is a difference between British, American, Philippine, Australian and other English grammar rules, and a professional proofreading service is well aware of that.
Also cultural expressions and idioms are other topics. A professional proofreading service may offer content translation and localization services as well. These are also reasons that answer your ‘Why is it important to get a proofreader on board’ question.
Readability
If a text is incorrect, it can still be convoluted and heavy. This is considered a readability failure. A professional proofreading service will maintain the text to a ninth-grader’s level and, if possible, even lower.
Proofreaders can use software that tells the readability score and highlights hard-to-understand sentences or complicated passages. Some of the most common errors that can affect the readability are:
– Repetition
– Long sentences
– Excessive use of passive voice
– Overuse of jargon and words that are hard to read
A professional proofreading service will check and fix these errors, making your content easy to comprehend. Now let us understand more on how the service will benefit your business.
2. A professional proofreading agency saves you money, time and frustration
Are you still wondering why it is important to get a proofreader on board? Well, consider this scenario. Your business comprises an in-house content team that also looks after your social media presence, blog, and printed media presence.
But who is accountable for the final product that goes out? If it is the team leader, it is possible that they are not trained to be a proofreader. If you decide each team member to proofread the other’s work, it will waste their time from doing other work. But if you get a professional proofreading service on board, the proofreader can approve each post while your team continues to churn out more work.
Even if you have a great content team, outsourcing a professional proofreading service can benefit your business more. Looking for linguistic errors and fixing them is time-consuming, and you should get a skilled person to do the same. This will help your company save time and focus on building your brand while the mistakes are taken care of by the proofreader.
Another answer to your ‘why is it important to get a proofreading agency on board’ is that it will cost you way less than hiring a proofreader as an employee. Also, you will agree that once something goes on the internet, it always stays on it. And it takes no time for any error to be highlighted. Hence, it is better to get a professional proofreading service on board that will look after all these errors and fix them before it is published for the world to see.
3. A proofreader adds credibility.
In the digital age, expertise and expert opinion are not enough. Many businesses, blogs and websites are competing for the same audience’s attention, and it is crucial to stand out. Your work needs not just to be well written and free of errors; it also needs to be written in a discoverable, accurate, credible, search engine optimised way and can resonate with your target audience.
Trust and reliability
Errors in your written work will annoy the audience as it breaks the reading flow. Grammatical mistakes and even minor punctuation errors can diminish your copy’s value. And once the reader’s attention is disrupted, it is hard to retain it again. Also, if they find that your text consistently has errors, they may avoid visiting your website or blog!
Mistakes can affect the way the reader thinks about your business. They may wonder, if the business does not value its brand’s presence enough to at least go through the text once before publishing and fixing the errors, how good will it be?
Hiring a professional proofreading service will ensure you do not lose out on these clients in the future. Polished and high-quality content will grow your business as it will make it stand out among competitors.
Better communication
Proofreaders are specialists as they have mastered the details and nuances of language. They use words to influence buying decisions, convey a particular message and establish credibility. They are excellent at ensuring that communication is transparent and well-received.
How do you select the best proofreading services?
Searching for the most professional service for your business is essential for making your life easier. Following are the points you can follow while doing so:
Request a sample
Any good agency will show you their work samples and complete a test request. You can select an article or passage to proofread, and someone from the agency will take the test.
Don’t compromise on the price
Professional proofreaders do not offer their services for lesser rates for quality work. If you want to see good quality work, then you should be willing to pay for it.
Don’t compromise on time
Proofreading is not just limited to reading the text. It takes extreme focus and time. Proofreaders examine and review the sentences closely to spot mistakes and fix them. You should keep this in mind while hiring a professional service.
Final Thoughts
Investing in concise, clean, and flawless content with excellent comprehension can significantly enhance the growth of your business. The paramount objective of creating exceptional content is to establish yourself as an expert capable of educating customers with valuable information. Your text should set the standard for competitors while aiding customers in making well-informed decisions.
If you’re still pondering the importance of having a professional proofreader on board, consider that they play a crucial role in keeping your audience engaged with your work. Exploring the option of collaborating with professional proofreading editors from platforms like TrueEditors, WriteSmartly, ProofreadingPal, and Kibin can be instrumental. These platforms house skilled editors specializing in refining grammar, enhancing structural coherence, and elevating the overall quality of documents. Their contribution is essential in building and maintaining the integrity of your brand.
-Liam
